The FBI’s current headquarters in Washington D.C., named after J. Edgar Hoover.

By Steve Neavling Ticklethewire.com

The long-delayed plan to build a new FBI headquarters has hit yet another snag.

House lawmakers said they aren’t comfortable funding a new headquarters until the Trump administration can justify why it scrapped a decade-long plan for a new building in the suburbs.

Trump’s plan calls for demolishing the J. Edgar Hoover headquarters in Washington D.C, and constructing a new building in its place.

“The Act does not include funding for the revised Headquarters consolidation plan released on February 12, 2018, because many questions regarding the new plan remain unanswered, including the revision of longstanding security requirements and changes to headquarters capacity in the national capital region,” lawmakers wrote of the omnibus spending bill, which funds agencies for the rest of the year, according to Federal News Radio. “Until these concerns are addressed and the appropriate authorizing Committees approve a prospectus, the Committees are reluctant to appropriate additional funds for this activities.”

The new proposal prompted the General Services Administration Inspector Carol Ochoa to open an investigation into the sudden change in plans.

The omnibus bill, however, includes $370 million for other FBI construction projects.

But on Friday morning, Trump threatened to veto the bill.

“I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded,” Trump tweeted.

Christopher Wray testifies during his confirmation hearing to become the next FBI director.

By Steve Neavling Ticklethewire.com

FBI Director Christopher Wray, whose bureau has come under relentless attacks by President Trump, pledged to his staff that he’s committed to leading the agency “objectively and independently, and by the book.”

Wray’s email to staff, first reported by CNN, follows the controversial firing of former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a frequent Trump target accused of a “lack of candor” during a Justice Department inquiry.

“And while I still cannot comment on specifics of that, or any, personnel matter, I wanted the public to know — and I want you to know — that I remain committed to doing things objectively and independently, and by the book,” Wray wrote to his roughly 35,000 employees.

“That commitment applies not just to our investigations and our intelligence analysis, but to personnel and disciplinary decisions as well,” he continued.

Wray insisted earlier this week that McCabe’s firing was not influenced by politics.

The FBI has been subjected to a brutal campaign by the president to discredit the bureau, which is overseeing the special counsel investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice and whether his campaign colluded with Russia to tip the scale on the election.

To help restore the bureau’s battered image, McCabe said he has “started to engage with the media” in an effort to “reintroducethe American public to who and what we are.”

The Austin serial bomber who terrorized the Texas capital in a spate of explosions that killed two people and wounded five others described himself in a cell phone recording as a “psychopath” who felt no remorse.

“I was I were sorry but I am not,” Mark Conditt said in a recording found on his cell phone after he blew himself up with a bomb early Wednesday morning, the Austin Statesman reports, citing sources familiar with the so-called “confession.”

The 23-year-old, who said he’s been disturbed since childhood, pledged to blow himself up if authorities closed in on him.

The 28-minute recording, which police have declined to release because they’re using it as evidence, offered no clues about Conditt’s motives or how he chose his victims.

Authorities suspect there were more recordings stored on his laptop, which was destroyed in the explosion.

In the recording, Conditt said he regretted going into a FedEx store in suburban Austin to mail two homemade bombs because he and his red pickup truck were captured on surveillance videos, which helped authorities identify him.

Police believe the recording was made at about 9 p.m. Tuesday, about five hours before police tracked him down behind a motel in suburban Austin.